Ukraine: PM says vandalsim of Holocaust memorial is Russian provocation

Via Jerusalem Post (h/t Documenting Anti-Semitism):

Repeated incidents of vandalism against the Holocaust memorial at Kiev’s Babi Yar ravine are political weapons aimed at the Ukrainian government and state, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk wrote World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer.

The memorial, which commemorates the more than 33,000 Jews massacred at the site in September 1941, has been vandalized six times in 2015 alone.

According to the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, while anti-Semitic violence has remained low compared to western Europe, vandalism spiked in Ukraine last year.

According to Yatsenyuk’s letter that he wrote last week, there are “compelling evidences [sic]” that “we are facing well-planned and thoroughly prepared provocations” whose purpose is to “throw discredit upon Ukrainian authorities and to destabilize the internal political situation in Ukraine.”

Russia has repeatedly accused the Ukrainian government of being under the control of fascists and neo-Nazis while some Ukrainian Jewish leaders have countered by accusing Moscow of fomenting anti-Semitic incidents for its own propaganda.  more